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Cracks in concrete compromise structural integrity by exposing steel reinforcement to corrosion agents, shortening its service life. Fungal-induced calcium carbonate (CaCO3) precipitation via urea hydrolysis offers a fast and robust self-healing mechanism to seal the cracks, extending the lifespan while reducing the carbon (C) footprint of concrete infrastructure. However, current studies rely on
Small area childhood stunting risk estimations remain a critical tool for shaping the surveillance policies of such a public health concern. With classical statistical methods, stunting risk metrics are mainly reported at a national level, which inhibits fine-scale insights at a more localized level. To this end, we implemented a novel multilevel small area estimation (SAE) approach for effectivel
Environmental changes over time and across different regions profoundly affect agriculture, forestry, water management, public health, and ecosystems. Therefore, monitoring these fluctuations is crucial for informing decision-making and developing strategies for long-term sustainability. While ground-based methods provide valuable insights into environmental dynamics, they are inherently limited i
Childhood stunting is a serious global public health issue that exhibits local spatial variations. Previous studies have used traditional statistical methods to identify stunting risk factors, and little is known about the application and usefulness of spatial machine learning techniques in identifying localized stunting risk factors based on complex datasets. This study assesses the performance o
The first years of life are a critical period of development, and circumstances during this period can affect individuals throughout life. But to what extent do disadvantaged circumstances in childhood affect individual wellbeing in later life and for whom? Can interventions in childhood break adversity over the life course? For whom are interventions most effective and why? This thesis aims to in
Determining the land cover (LC) data requirements used as input to noise simulations is essential for planning sustainable urban densifications. This study examines how different LC datasets influence simulated environmental noise levels of road traffic using Nord2000 in an urban area of 1 km2 in southern Sweden. Four LC datasets were used. The first dataset was based on satellite data (spatial re
Before performing 177Lu-DOTATATE therapy for neuroendocrine tumors, somatostatin receptor (SSTR) PET imaging is currently used to confirm sufficient tumor SSTR expression, but it also has potential to be used to personalize treatment by predicting absorbed doses to critical organs. This study aims to validate the predictive capability of SSTR PET in anticipating renal absorbed dose in the first cy
Background: Subgroups of adult-onset diabetes, namely severe autoimmune diabetes (SAID), severe insulin-deficient diabetes (SIDD), severe insulin-resistant diabetes (SIRD), and mild obesity-related diabetes (MOD) or mild age-related (MARD) diabetes, have been defined with clinical variables and a machine-learning approach. Our aim was to describe their long-term outcomes and mortality. Methods: In
Effectively identifying deviations in real-world medical time-series data is a critical endeavor, essential for early surveillance of disease outbreaks. This paper demonstrates the integration of time-series anomaly detection techniques to develop surveillance systems for disease outbreaks. Utilizing data from Sweden's telephone counseling service (1177), we first illustrate the trends in physical
Despite diagnostic algorithms, identification of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in emergency departments (ED) remains a challenge. We evaluated symptoms, background, and laboratory data in 27,647 ED patients presenting with pain, swelling, or other symptoms from the extremities, and identified predictors of VTE diagnosis within one year. Predictors of a clinical decision to perform phlebography, ult
In the following study, using highly-developed remote sensing methodologies, a historical over-ten-year study of the LULC phenomenon of the Khorezm Oasis was conducted. The analysis provides valuable insights about agricultural change, water management policies and the alteration of LULC in the region, including several processes, changes in plants and irrigation levels, population density and gro
Hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) is a renewable diesel fuel used to replace petroleum diesel. The organic compounds in HVO are poorly characterized; therefore, toxicological properties could be different from petroleum diesel exhaust. The aim of this study was to evaluate the exposure and effective biomarkers in 18 individuals after short-term (3 h) exposure to HVO exhaust and petroleum diesel exh
Climate change has the potential to alter hydrological regimes and to expand saturated areas in permafrost environments, which are important sources of organic carbon. The sources, transfer zones, and delivery mechanisms of carbon into the stream network are controlled by the morphometric properties of the catchment; however, the utility and limitations of these properties as predictors of dissolv
Context: There is a dispute whether obesity without major metabolic derangements may represent a benign condition or not. Objective: We aimed to compare the plasma metabolome in obese subjects without metabolic syndrome (MetS) with normal-weight subjects without MetS and with obese subjects with MetS. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study at 2 academic centers in Sweden. Individuals from 3 pop
Background A clustering of cardiovascular risk factors is denoted the metabolic syndrome (MetS), but the mechanistic underpinnings of this clustering is not clear. Using large-scale metabolomics, we aimed to find a metabolic profile common for all five components of MetS. Methods and findings 791 annotated non-xenobiotic metabolites were measured by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem m
The subtitle of this essay echoes the title of David E. James’s book The Most Typical Avant-Garde, which makes the claim that the various minor cinemas of Los Angeles (amateur, immigrant, artists’ etc.) constitute the most distinctive avant-garde “on behalf of cultural practices that are commonly supposed not to even have existed”. The heterogeneous Swedish avant-garde scene has definitely been co
Prior to the operation of the first Belarussian nuclear power plant (BelNPP), the baseline of the radiation environment was determined within a radius of about 30 km from BelNPP. This independent assessment was carried out during two expeditions in 2019. In 2022, a similar survey was carried out (during the initialoperation of BelNPP) on the Lithuanian side of the boarder. Here we present the over
This study investigated historic and future characteristics of precipitation periods in Mbale Municipality. Observed historic (1982–2014) and modeled future (2021–50) precipitation data were analyzed using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Modeled data depict a likelihood of more frequent extremely wet and dry periods in near future as compared to historic period. In particular, there is a l
Recent advances in proteomic technologies have made high throughput profiling of low abundance proteins in large epidemiological cohorts increasingly feasible. We investigated whether aptamer-based proteomic profiling could identify biomarkers associated with future development of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) beyond known risk factors. We identified dozens of markers with highly significant associations
